This site expands on Bob Andelman's biography, "Will Eisner: A Spirited Life" (M Press/Dark Horse), with new interviews and updates on related projects that bring greater depth and color to the portrayal of the legendary comic book/graphic novel artist and writer.
Monday, March 30, 2009
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DVD Review: Will Eisner: Profession: Cartoonist (Newsarama.com)
Image via WikipediaBy Steve Fritz 22 December 2008
WILL EISNER: PROFESSION: CARTOONIST (Image Entertainment)
With the arrival of The Spirit movie in theaters this week, no one should be surprised that a documentary about Will Eisner just hit the market. After all, the same thing already happened with Alan Moore (Mindscape of...). Can Neil Gaiman, Frank Miller, Jack Kirby, Stan Lee, you-name-‘em, be far behind?
The good news is this selection is well worth the effort. An American/Brazilian collaboration, this doc is divided into three key parts; Eisner’s roots and his work on The Spirit, his middle career and move into graphic novels and, finally, a solid analysis of his distinctive graphic style and importance to the industry/artform. Among those heavily interviewed are his wife Anne, Denis Kitchen, Stan Lee, Art Spiegelman and many, many other important colleagues he made through his long career.
The real “star” is Eisner himself, who apparently was quite generous with the documentarians, providing a number of interviews, a tour of his Ft. Lauderdale home and a generous sampling of the work he did over his 70 year career.
First things first Olympia bibliophiles: The Olympia Timberland Library is back up and running and the whole building is open starting today!
Today is also the first day of registration for a book discussion series that will start on Saturday afternoon, January 10th and continue every other Saturday for a total of five sessions.
Event Type: Adult Book Discussion Date: 1/10/2009 Start Time: 2:00 PM End Time: 4:00 PM Description:Join local scholar Danny Kadden in a five-part reading and discussion series entitled "Let's Talk About It: Jewish Literature - Identity and Imagination." The series will explore the theme of "Modern Marvels: Jewish Adventures in the Graphic Novel." The first 25 registrants will receive free copies of the graphic novels to keep. Registration begins on Monday, December 15; call, 352-0595 or stop by the library’s information desk. This program was made possible by a grant from the American Library Association and Nextbook. The series begins January 10 with a discussion of "A Contract with God: And Other Tenement Stories," by Will Eisner. Library: Olympia Timberland Library Presenter: Danny Kadden
Each session will begin with a 15-25 minute lecture by local Jewish scholar, Danny Kadden, to be followed by a group discussion.
Frank Miller's noir craftsmanship inspired actresses Scarlett Johansson and Eva Mendes to embrace the femme-fatale flourishes of his newest film
Bob Thompson
National Post
December 22, 2008
The renowned graphic novelist Frank Miller knows how to write about anxiety, but he might have trouble dealing with his own as the opening of The Spirit approaches.
The Spirit is Miller's much anticipated live-action film version of the classic 1940s Will Eisner newspaper strip and subsequent comic book series. Opening on Christmas Day, the movie arrives with an important question: Can Miller --on his first solo directorial effort -- translate the stylish 1940s noir images onto the big screen?
There's a good chance he can. For one thing, Miller appreciates The Spirit's creative origins. He was an Eisner friend and associate, and admits that he based some of his more popular graphic novels on Eisner's tones and textures. Miller also codirected and co-wrote the digital Sin City film with Robert Rodriguez and penned the popular graphic novels Sin City and 300 (the movie became a worldwide hit). And Miller also famously made over Batman as the brooding Dark Knight in comics that inspired Christopher Nolan's hit movies Batman Begins and The Dark Knight.
In 'The Spirit,' she's Sand Saref, a jewel thief so hot she can melt the hearts of the undead -- namely the eponymous crime fighter (Gabriel Macht). Eva Mendes dished with Moviefone about re-teaming with Scarlett Johansson, why she has no problem with artistic nudity ... and why she thinks certain body parts should be in proportion.
NEW YORK -- Apart from Marvel's Stan Lee, if there is a figure who represents the link between the comic books of old and the movies coming to a theatre near you, it's Frank Miller.
The artist-writer, who gave us 300, Sin City and the Dark Knight incarnation of Batman, began his career in the colourfully ink-stained New York-based cauldron of comic-book art, mentored by the likes of Jim Shooter, Neal Adams -- but most of all, the legendary and prolific Will Eisner.
Theirs was a strange, combative relationship -- one in which Miller is finally getting the last word, three years after Eisner's death, making his solo directorial debut with a stylized movie of Eisner's signature noir hero from the '40s, The Spirit. Wherever he is, the female-form-obsessed Eisner must appreciate the casting -- Scarlett Johansson (Silken Floss), Eva Mendes (Sand Saref) and Jaime King (Lorelei), all playing various forms of femmes fatale tormenting our mordant hero (Gabriel Macht).
Gabriel Macht as the title character in the comic book-inspired film 'The Spirit,' opening Friday.
Who was that masked man?
The star of "The Spirit," opening Friday, may not be as recognizable – with or without the mask – as castmates Samuel L. Jackson and Eva Mendes, but the strong-jawed Gabriel Macht is ready for his closeup.
To get in the head of a character grappling with identity issues even as he wrestled with the bad guys, Macht plastered every inch of his trailer with storyboards and Xeroxes of the 1940s comic strips by Will Eisner that the movie was based on.
"His trailer was full of Spirit-phanelia," marveled Jackson. "He was dealing with his identity crisis all the time."
When you talk about the comic book characters who have been around the longest, the first ones that will come to mind are Superman, who first appeared in 1938, and Batman a year later. In both cases, you can probably list and discuss their movie and television incarnations, as well as the cartoons and comic books in which the two have appeared. Then there's the case of Will Eisner's The Spirit, a pulpy comic character created by legendary cartoonist Will Eisner for a Sunday comics insert in 1940 that's only ventured off the comic pages once, in 1987, for a television movie.
The Spirit is the reincarnated alter ego of police officer Denny Colt, who was shot and killed on duty but then returned later as the indestructible crime fighter who works with Commissioner Dolan to take down Central City's tougher criminal element. Eisner's work was influenced by the early days of film noir, but it was also filled with humor and pathos and a never-ending supply of beautiful femme fatales to tempt and tease The Spirit. The character continued to appear in strips and comic books throughout the '40s, '50s and '60s, and then was reprinted extensively after that, most recently in a series of hardbound archives from DC Comics, who also resuscitated the character with new stories by top comic book talent.
When it came time to give The Spirit his first big screen feature film, there really was only one man to call for the job, and that was Will Eisner's close friend and frequent sparring partner Frank Miller, whose work during the '80s and '90s was as much influenced by Eisner as it was an antithesis to the virtues of The Spirit.
When we left the cast and crew of 'The Spirit' yesterday , actor Dan Lauria (who plays commissioner Dolan in the film) expressed his enthusiasm for the wardrobe he had in director Frank Miller's modern noir vision of Will Eisner's comic.
"I loved the costume you picked out for me. Right out of Bart MacLane's closet," Lauria said, referring to the actor who appeared in over a hundred classic movies including 'The Maltese Falcon'.
Of course the most important costume to get right were the threads Gabriel Macht wore as The Spirit.
"I worked hard on Gabe’s costume because at first it looked really foolish, until we spruced you up with the black outfit and everything," Miller told reporters but credits costume designer Michael Dennison for bringing the leading man's look to fruition.
Book Review: The Spirit: The Movie Visual Companion (Parka Blogs)
This is a hardcover book with no dust jacket. It's thick and the paperstock is good.
Included are many stories on the production process, Will Eisner's comic panels, behind the scenes photography on set, film stills and movie storyboards. The pages are well laid out and literally soaked with high resolution photos.
Mark Cotta Vaz has provided an in-depth writeup into the production process. The book starts all with a little history of Will Eisner and The Spirit, and goes on to talk about the process of making the movie. There are many interesting things to read, like how the studios negotiated the contract with Will Eisner, the casting of characters, shooting in front of the green screen, shooting different parts of the movies, death and rebirth of The Spirit on the movie and more.
If your idea of comic books is capes and tights and nefarious villains, then it's time to look again. As comic books and graphic novels have become an increasingly respected literary format in the past few decades, there's been a complementary trend in examining the Jewish connection to comics -- a medium that, like the film industry, began with no small amount of help from the Jews.
In fact, the connection between Jews and comic books has spawned something of a cottage industry over the past few years, including panel discussions, blogs and several books published on the topic -- the most recent of which, Arie Kaplan's From Krakow to Krypton: Jews and Comic Books, was released by Philadelphia's own Jewish Publication Society.
Superman was not Jewish, per se, although Jewish themes abound.
According to Paul Buhle, senior lecturer in the history and American civilization departments at Brown University, the past decade or so has seen "a broad legitimization within Jewish studies of looking at popular culture, and thinking about popular culture and Jewish roles [in it]."
"Eighty years ago, to talk about the Jewish role in popular culture was considered to be slightly dangerous, because it raised Hollywood-like hackles of Jews controlling young minds in America," continued Buhle, who edited the collection Jews and American Comics. Now, however, "these subjects are an object of examination, both entirely positive -- Jewish contributions to basketball -- and not so positive -- the Jewish role in organized crime.
"The field is open," added Buhle, to almost any area where Jews have made an impact, so it's only natural that comic books would be examined as well.
NY Times on Frank Miller's "The Spirit" Movie: "108 overstuffed, interminable minutes"
By A. O. SCOTT
December 25, 2008
"... I’m just trying to figure out why, somewhere in the middle of “The Spirit,”Samuel L. Jackson and Scarlett Johansson arrive on screen decked out in swastikas and jackboots. Nothing in the logic of the film explains it, but then, to use the phrase “the logic of the film” when talking about “The Spirit” may be to take the “oxy” out of “oxymoronic.”
To ask why anything happens in Frank Miller’s sludgy, hyper-stylized adaptation of a fabled comic book series by Will Eisner may be an exercise in futility. The only halfway interesting question is why the thing exists at all."
Eva Mendes & Scarlett Johansson Show Their Spirit (JustJared.com)
Scarlett Johansson and Eva Mendes attend the launch party for their upcoming film The Spirit at London’s Old Sorting Office Thursday night.
Scarlett, 23, plays femme fatale secretary Silken Floss, while Eva, 34, portrays Sand Saref, a love interest for The Spirit himself.
Written and directed by Frank Miller, the film is adapted from a classic Will Eisner comic and also stars Gabriel Macht as The Spirit and Samuel L. Jackson as his nemesis, The Octopus.
The Spirit is scheduled for release on December 25th.
I've been monitoring the reviews of Frank Miller's The Spirit movie -- which, thankfully, the marketing people stopped calling "Will Eisner's The Spirit" -- and there isn't much good to be found. Rather than posting separately for each bad review, I'm providing links to many of them below.
But almost everyone else uniformly gave the film raspberries. At least Miller can look forward to being a star at this year's Razzies. And you have to wonder if the owners of the rights to Buck Rogers aren't having second thoughts about letting Miller get his mitts on their property...
USA Today, Claudia Pulg "The Spirit is uneven, but its campy adventure provides some amusing, escapist fun."
Kansas City Star, Jason Heck "'The Spirit' is terrific entertainment. It’s a better and a more complete film than “Sin City” or “300.” Having a comic book genius create a comic book movie is a very, very good idea indeed."
Chicago Tribune, Web Behrens "Produced and directed by guys who grew up with a deep appreciation for Eisner, the film remains largely faithful to the quirky, well, spirit of the 60-plus-year-old creation."
Houston Chronicle, Rick Bentley "The bold visual strokes comic artist Frank Miller used to create Sin City revealed he was the only director who could do justice to the film version of Will Eisner’s ground-breaking comic series The Spirit.
"Eisner redefined comics in the 1940s and early ’50s with his creation of a print version of the film noir style. His stories were gritty. He used humor like a hidden weapon, exposed only when he needed to make a point.
"Miller has shown the same in-your-face skill in the creation of his comics and films. The result of Miller’s vision of Eisner with The Spirit is a visual explosion ignited by at times campy acting and melodrama so thick it will hurt your teeth."
Time Magazine, Richard Corliss "The joke — the prank — is on all of us. Whether you're a deep-dish Eisnerphile or an ordinary Christmas moviegoer looking for some action-adventure in a mall full of Oscar contenders, you will be obliged to proclaim this Spirit a calamitous botch. Miller has misread the original, turning dark drama into strained comedy. Of course, artists have the liberty to make fun of any source material, however hallowed; but Miller lacks the simple competence to make the movie move. The facility he has on the page doesn't translate to the screen."
Los Angeles Times, Sam Adams "'The Spirit' might bear the name of Will Eisner, on whose 1940s comics it is loosely based, but it bears as much resemblance to Eisner's inventive, lighthearted creation as "The Dark Knight" does to its candy-colored '60s television predecessor."
New York Daily News, Elizabeth Weitzman "'The Spirit' one of 'the worst movies of the year'"
Star-Ledger, Stephen Whitty "Miller has as uncertain a hand on his actors as he does on the tone."
The Oregonian, Mike Russell "'The Spirit' is a loony, embarrassing mess that takes the late Will Eisner's classic comics creation and beats it senseless with a giant toilet bowl (literally, at one point)."
Roger Ebert.com, Roger Ebert "'The Spirit' is mannered to the point of madness. There is not a trace of human emotion in it. To call the characters cardboard is to insult a useful packing material. The movie is all style -- style without substance, style whirling in a senseless void. The film's hero is an ex-cop reincarnated as an immortal enforcer; for all the personality he exhibits, we would welcome Elmer Fudd."
E! Online, Alex Markerson "The Spirit is as thin as the newsprint from which it springs."
Denton Record-Chronicle, Bob Allen "Miller makes his turgid tale devoid of color, with blood just as gray and bland as everything else in the film except for the Spirit’s tie and Scarlett Johansson’s lips."
Arizona Republic, Bill Goodykoontz "Although the acting in Sin City was campy and the story over-the-top, it worked in the context of the film. Too often The Spirit is just not very good."
The Plain Dealer, Julie E. Washington "'The Spirit' is bizarre -- and not in a good way."
St. Petersburg Times, Steve Persall "The Spirit could be retitled The Light Knight, since Frank Miller's movie is the antithesis of everything that made The Dark Knight the quintessential comic book movie."
San Francisco Chronicle, Peter Hartlaub "Miller's distinction as one of the all-time best comic book writers is strong enough to withstand his role in making one of the worst comic book movies ever."
Boston Herald, Stephen Schaefer "...nothing meshes, much less enthralls..."
Newsday, Frank Lovece "Will Eisner's "The Spirit" was the "Citizen Kane" of comics, pushing the limits of the medium and expanding its visual vocabulary. Appearing in a Sunday-paper comic-book supplement from 1940 to 1952, it starred an average-Joe masked crime-fighter in a rumpled suit - a vulnerable but insouciant Everyman in humanist fables.
"Little of that makes it on-screen in this adaptation by writer-artist turned filmmaker Frank Miller. The auteur of comics "Sin City," "300" and " Batman: The Dark Knight Returns," Miller retained only Eisner's film noir surface, jettisoning characterization, soul and anything remotely human."
Vancouver Sun, Katherine Monk "The Spirit is an ambitious mess with no life"
Toronto Star, Jason Anderson "At which exact point The Spirit hits rock bottom is a matter of debate. Maybe it's when we first see our eponymous hero scampering across rooftops in a fashion less appropriate to a movie superhero than to a cast member of Guys and Dolls.
"Or maybe it comes during the first fight sequence, when he's clobbered over the head with a bathroom fixture by a supervillain who then howls, "C'mon, toilets are always funny!" He is not correct"
"Unfortunately, Miller's first solo effort is a cinematic non-starter, with a cluttered story, paper-thin characters who seem to speak in self-mocking clichés, a bland hero, a hysterical villain and a surfeit of pouting vamps. Miller's visual technique, which was astonishing in Sin City, now feels familiar - and with a more careful PG-13 rating in the U.S., the film feels like a paler imitation of its predecessor."
"If you're expecting the dark, wicked humor and dazzlingly gruesome violence of Sin City, you'll be sorely disappointed."
New York Press, Simon Abrams "Miller is more than eager to argue for the legitimacy of comics’ pulpy roots. But he’s not doing it in the right way." Vue Weekly, Josef Braun "There are flourishes of visual expressionism, but all the eye candy, from the misty skies of fluttering snow to Eva Mendes’ immaculate ass, begins to wear as the story proves itself bereft of feeling. The characters are stereotypes. Their stories get very boring."
Now Toronto, Norman Wilner "Spiritless: Frank Miller doesn’t have the slightest clue how to put a movie together"
Examiner.com, Matthew Razak "I don't believe I have ever walked out of a theater more torn about a movie than when leaving the theater after seeing The Spirit. My movie critic selves were in complete and total conflict with each other. The camp loving, B-grade movie addict in me was saying, "You wait and see, ten years from now this is going to be one of those crazy cult classics." The professional critic in me was shouting over that about how the film is a jarring mish-mash of comic book camp, pulp fiction writing and themes that are far too dark for either. I was seriously just plain confused."
When 'The Spirit' arrives in theaters on December 25th, moviegoers will be invited into a world that comics-auteur turned filmmaker Frank Miller calls "modern noir." It's a Chandleresque place the evokes Hollywood's tough guys of old, but still holds the modern conveniences of the present day.
This is the cinematic realization of Will Eisner's Central City.
"I’m pretty much an encyclopedia of film noir," Miller told reporters at a recent press gathering for the film.
Actor Dan Lauria, who plays Commissioner Dolan in the film, is also a student of the genre and made it his mission to test Millers' acumen.
"I’m a thief. I mean, whenever I do anything I rob from an old actor that nobody remembers," Lauria admitted. "So, I told Frank the last play I did I was doing Richard Conte. Nobody knew who he was. So he said, 'Who are you doing in this movie?' And I said, 'Ah, you wouldn’t know him' and he said, 'No, try me out.' and I says 'Bart MacLane'.
"He listed every Bart MacLane movie. I couldn’t do one bit without him telling me what movie I’d stolen from."
"Frank actually told me you were doing Dane Clark," Gabriel Macht, who plays Denny Colt, a.k.a. The Spirt, chimes in. However, the leading man agrees that the modern noir vibe helped shape his performance.
"I think tone is really important and I think this film is a great blend of what Eisner and Frank was able to create," said Macht. "There is a bit of the Raymond Chandler gumshoe detective. I think if you are not honest in your approach to the material it could get slapsticky and it could get schticky. We didn’t go there. I think, what’s up there on the screen, what we were able to get is a little bit more extreme in the sense that it’s a comic book movie."
I’ve been saying for quite a while that I think the new Frank Miller film “The Spirit” looks just ass awful. Well… in the last two days I’ve had a chance to talk to 2 people who saw it recently. What did they both think?
Well, I think the phrase “disgustingly awful” came up a couple of times with the one person I talked too.
But the other person I talked to didn’t say much about it. They just said 4 words… it wasn’t even a complete sentence. All they said was this:
JOHN: “So how was it?” FRIEND: “NOT SINCE BATTLEFIELD EARTH…” JOHN: “Wow”
That is a powerful, non complete sentence phrase right there. Not since Battlefield Earth…
That right there is a phrase you never want associated with your movie.
The Spirit's Gabriel Macht isn't a comic-book hero; he just plays one in the movies.
In fact, Macht--who stars as Denny Colt/The Spirit, the dead rookie cop turn masked crimefighter, in Frank Miller's upcoming big-screen adaptation of the Will Eisner comic book--was entirely unfamiliar with the story, its history or Eisner when the film came up.
In an exclusive interview with SCI FI Wire, Macht revealed that his agents introduced him to the material, that Miller didn't want him to rely too much on the book The Best of The Spirit and that dealing with green screens didn't leave him the slightest bit blue. Following are edited excerpts of the interview with Macht; look for part two of this Q&A on Monday.
Did you know thing one about The Spirit before this project arrived on your doorstep?
Macht: No. I was told about the film from my agents. They said, "Frank Miller is doing a comic-book film from an adaptation of an insert in the newspapers from the '40s called Will Eisner's The Spirit." So I read the sides [script pages], and I jumped online and on Wikipedia and I looked up Will Eisner's The Spirit. And I found the old version of it. And then I saw Frank Miller's drawing. I think it was first presented at Comic-Con in 2007, and it was a very violent-looking, tough-guy Spirit. When I went into the audition I said to Frank, "I saw the poster that you drew, and I thought, 'I look like that guy. Why not come in?'" The guy looks nothing like me! Frank's drawing looks nothing like me. But I was not familiar with the comic. I was not familiar with Will Eisner, but as soon as I did my research I found that he is a legend in the world of comic books and graphic novels, and I think it was he who invented the term "graphic novel." He was one of the great innovators of the genre.
How much did Frank Miller want you to immerse yourself in the Eisner universe? Or did he ask you to go by his script?
Macht: When I finally got the job, there was some time between sitting down with Frank and traveling to Albuquerque to shoot on the soundstages out there. In that time I went out and bought The Best of the Spirit, which has the color versions of the old comics. When I came to visit with Frank, he said, "So, what have you done?" And I said, "Well, I've immersed myself in The Best of ... " He goes, "No, no, no, no. I'm not a fan of the coloring that they did for those comics. Let me give you my picks." So he gave me a massive binder of his favorite Will Eisner work, but all in black and white. He did absolutely want me to familiarize myself with Will Eisner's vision of Central City, of Denny, of the femme fatales. I looked pages and pages, and when I got to set on my first day, I ended up taking all of the comics, and I had a bunch of Frank's storyboards of the film, and I pasted them all over my trailer. You couldn't see one piece of fake wood in my trailer. It was all Will Eisner and Frank Miller drawings. So I really tried to absorb as much as I could from Eisner's take to influence the work that we created together, Frank and I.
Gabriel Macht has been active in film, theater, and television for most of the last decade, starting with a role on the original Beverly Hills 90210. He has since been seen in such films as Behind Enemy Lines, The Recruit, A Love Song for Bobby Long, and The Good Shepherd. It took Frank Miller to give him a starring part, however: he's slated to appear as resurrected cop Denny Colt in Will Eisner'sThe Spirit, due for release Christmas Day. In an exclusive interview with Mania.com, Macht talked about stepping into the character's shoes, as well as working with Miller and meeting the expectations of a new generation of comic book films.
Question: How did you get involved with the project? Were you a big comics fan going in?
Gabriel Macht: I wasn't a crazy comic book fan, but I was a big fan of comic book movies. My agent sent me into this audition without saying much about it. It was only when I got in there that I found out it was for Frank Miller. My interest level jumped up by about a factor of 10. I had loved the Sin City movie and the 300 movie both, and suddenly here's the guy who created them introducing himself to me. I think every actor wants to work for someone with a vision, and Frank's is one of the strongest I've ever seen. I jumped on the Will Eisner stuff once I got the part, but in the early stages, what we had were Frank's storyboards for the film. And they were so clear and so beautiful and gave such a tremendous impression of where he wanted to go with this movie. We established a great chemistry right away--almost as soon as I read for it--and while the auditioning process was fairly long, I would get more and more excited about it with each step I took.
You only think your true love isn’t into comics. With the incredible expanse of comic book themes, characters, and licensed tie-ins being published, there’s never been a better time to gift that comic-enthusiast or potential comic-enthusiast on your list. Here’s a handy list of 12 tomes with which to surprise and delight this year:
4. “The Best of The Spirit” (DC Comics, $14.99)” Another book to absorb before the film adaptation arrives this month; this archive is the cream of the crop of Will Eisner’s trendsetting Spirit stories. If you know fans of hard-boiled mysteries, these 22 tales are for them.
Will Eisner’s classic comics character makes the leap to the screen in this spectacular new live-action movie written and directed by Frank Miller (Sin City, 300), and starring Gabriel Macht as The Spirit, Samuel L. Jackson as his psychotic arch-nemesis The Octopus, and Eva Mendes and Scarlett Johansson as alluring femmes fatales.
In Central City, one man fights crime using nothing but his wits and his fists. He wears a mask, a suit and a fedora, and he is known only as The Spirit...
This stunning volume contains interviews with the cast and the crew, color photos & production art, and Frank Miller sketches and storyboards.
CONTENTS:
Introduction by Frank Miller
Chapter One - The Shadow of The Spirit Chapter Two - The Comic Book Movie Chapter Three - Never World Chapter Four - Cast of Characters Chapter Five - The Green World and Black World Chapter Six - The Bunker Chapter Seven - The Death of The Spirit Chapter Eight - The Spirit Lives
Will Eisner is particularly well known today for creating “The Spirit,” his blue-clad superhero that’s currently receiving the Hollywood treatment at the hands of Frank Miller. But lesser known is that Eisner was a veteran of no less than three major wars: World War II (where he was an enlisted man) and Korea and Vietnam, where he was a civilian contracter eventually obtaining the rank equivalent to a brigadier general. I was fortunate enough to know Will, and four years before his death in 2005, we chatted at length about his military service, how it related to “The Spirit,” and his views on the extreme stresses of war. In honor of both Veterans Day and Will Eisner, enjoy this rare look inside the mind of the revered comics legend on this most serious of topics.
MTV: Where were you when Pearl Harbor was attacked?
WE: I was sitting in my studio eating a roast beef sandwich which my mother prepared for me [laughs]. I was working on “The Spirit.” I was really shook up listening to it. I was listening to the opera at the time…it was a Carnegie Hall concert. I remember the thing was cut off and they announced the attack on Pearl Harbor. And I was really shook up because I realized that this was gonna be it. I’d be drafted.
MTV: And in 1942, you were drafted into the Army.
WE: Early ’42. The Army gave me a six-month delay because I was working on a newspaper feature.
MTV: What were you feeling when you received your draft notice? WE: Well, I was ambivalent. Remember, unlike the Vietnam War, everybody was very in favor of the war, particularly because of the Nazis and because of the fact that the country seemed to be in danger. So I was kind of eager to be part of it. I felt that I’d want to be part of the war effort. On the other hand, this was a year after I had started “The Spirit,” which represented a whole new career for me. And I knew that if I went into the Army this whole thing would kind of fall apart on me. So I was torn between the two feelings. One was the eagerness to go and sign up, [but] on the other hand, the loss of a possible career. So that was my feeling.
Prediction #1: "The Spirit" (Frank Miller) (I Dream in Indigo)
By Indigo
I'm going to start doing a "Prediction" column where I predict what will be the next good movie, "big thing", trend, hot song, etc..
The Spirit! "Directed by Frank Miller, written by Frank Miller and Will Eisner, and from the creators of 'Sin City' and '300', comes 'The Spirit"...
This movie looks like it might be the best movie all year! I'm sold on the mere fact that it's directed and written by Frank Miller, (the same director as "Sin City") and has a wicked trailer. The cinematography, the color scheme , and the effects are all dope. Plus, I just saw Samuel Jackson in "Soul Men" and his performance was great in that, so I'm excited to see him in another movie. Cast members Eva Mendes and Scarlette Johansson make "The Spirit" even more promising...
What’s so special about The Spirit? A review of The Spirit Special #1 (WednesdaysHaul.com)
By Scott Cederlund
November 25th, 2008
In a little over a month, you may end up seeing a movie called The Spirit. People are going to tell you how it’s directed by Frank Miller, creator of 300 and Sin City, to establish his comic book movie pedigree. They’ll probably even throw in the fact that Miller co-directed Sin City as well to bolster Miller’s cinematic credentials. They may even to tell you that The Spirit is based on an old and rather famous comic book by some guy named Will Eisner to try and give the movie a sense of history and importance. And in honor of this Christmas’s big movie release, DC has put out The Spirit Special #1, featuring four stories that presumably tie into the movie somehow.
The first story “Sign of the Octopus” from 1947 feels like it may be the closest in tone and mood to the movie if the movie’s trailer is any indication. Caught and beaten, the Spirit is basically tortured into giving up the whereabouts of a safe full of money. It’s a surprisingly brutal story from the late 1940s, complete with exploding grenades right under a henchman’s body and a bloody bat used to beat the Spirit but it is a reminder that The Spirit does live in a dirty and physical world. This issue features the Spirit’s enemy the Octopus who is played in the movie by Samuel L. Jackson. As what may be a sign that Miller doesn’t get it, Eisner never shows more of the Octopus than his arm. The character remains a mystery, always hidden in doorways, windows and shadows. He’s a threat but he’s never defined clearly. The Octopus is certainly not Shaft and was never trapped on a plane with snakes.
WEST KINGSTON - Two brothers who grew up as comic book fans in Wakefield teamed up to make a documentary on one of the iconic figures of the industry. Their film, "Will Eisner: Portrait of a Sequential Artist," will be screened at the Courthouse Center for the Arts Wednesday at 7 p.m. as part of a homecoming celebration for family and friends.
"The comics were really great to us," said Jon B. Cooke of West Kingston, the writer and co-producer of the film he made with his brother, director and co-producer Andrew D. Cooke, who lives and works in the film industry in New York. "This homecoming screening, it's really to celebrate the achievements of my brother, and it's also for our mom, who always supported our interest in the arts. She bought the comics."
The film illuminates the life and career of Eisner, creator of "The Spirit," who coined the terms "graphic novel" and "sequential art" and became one of the most influential and visionary comic book artists of all time. Click HERE to Keep Reading!
VIDEO: Stunning Scarlett and Eva, Trailer Horrific (Javno.com)
From JAVNO.com: "The film adaptation of the comic strip “The Spirit” by Will Eisner is Frank Miller’s (Sin City) second directing project, but the first project he directed on his own. The film is expected to premiere on Christmas and the movie’s trailers have already been put up on YouTube. The imagination of viewers has been additionally tickled by the stunning actresses in the film, Eva Mendes and Scarlett Johansson.
"But critics of the newest trailer are slashing. Film bloggers think that “The Spirit” is much too like “Sin City” and the dialogues we can hear in the trailer are horrific. See for yourself. We are hoping that the problem is that this excerpthas been taken out of context."
While I do wish the best to Frank Miller's movie version of THE SPIRIT, opening next month, I must say that the ads so far have not filled me with confidence. Yes, Miller was creator Will Eisner's friend, and his disciple, and much of Miller's comic book work has been, er, spiritually attuned to Eisner's. One of my favorite recollections of the Golden Apple Comics store in Hollywood is of the mid-1980's Saturday afternoon when I saw Miller -- who just weeks before had been feted at the same store for the release of THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS, with lines stretching out the door as fans waited hours for his autograph -- slipping into the store without fanfare, and buying the latest issue of Kitchen Sink Press's reprint of THE SPIRIT.
But those ads. The most recent features the Spirit's arch-foe, the Octopus. Eisner's Octopus was a criminal mastermind whose true face was never seen, who stood behind curtains or went about in disguise, his only distinguishing feature his gloves with three fat vertical lines on the back. In the latest ad, Samuel L. Jackson, as the Octopus, has the gloves; but he also has outrageous mascara, and platform boots, and, well, a pimp coat. Stuff like this makes me suspect that the SPIRIT movie might meet the same fate as SPEED RACER.
I just finished reading Will Eisner's graphic novel compilation, The Contract with God Trilogy. At the time of their publication, these stories were groundbreaking - among the first in their genre. They are still quintessential of the graphic novel movement. In them, Eisner attempts to tell stories about the human experience that are linked by their common setting: Dropsie Avenue in the Bronx, New York. While sometimes light-hearted, the tales are more frequently sober, even depressing in tone. The rare hopeful moments are the main things that kept me reading after a while.
"A nice article from MTV about Amanda Palmer & me, and then I clicked on the next link, read what Frank Miller said about his Spirit movie, and decided that given his description of it, I'd probably skip it, but am still happy that it will get a lot of people reading collections of The Spirit who would never have picked up or heard of Will Eisner's wonderful comic otherwise. (You can read about how I first encountered The Spirit in http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2005/01/spirit-of-seventy-five.asp)." — Neil Gaiman writing in his online blog.
Dr Hermes Retro-Scans - Cheeky fun with Klaus Nordling's LADY LUCK
Dr. Hermes takes a look at an often overlooked Will Eisner creation, "Lady Luck," as developed by long-time Eisner associate and friend Klaus Nordling.
Whew! Been doing a lot of comic related stuffs lately. Let's see, in order:
I read "The Spirit: Femme Fatales" and some of Darwyn Cooke's The Spirit (they only had the second volume) at books a million, and LOVED IT. Everyone's all "Will Eisner is a genius!" and I'm all "Well, I'll have to check it out" and I did, and he IS.
The stories are just fun. And not the cotton candy type of fun of Superman and Batman stories, but fun like a toffee chocolate bar, light and tasty, yet with crunchy delicious nougats of substance.
Mmm, chocolate...
Anyway, I was saying. I totally loved the trade and bought it. The first thing I noticed about the stories were the art- since I am constantly aspiring to be a half way decent artist- it's so expressive. You can't help but love Denny, because he's always got these wonderful goofy expressions on his face so you can see he's not taking himself seriously at ALL.
Also, the female characters- it was written in the 1940's, so there's some stereotypes and questionable stuff (the scariest one was when Comissioner Dolan was positively gleeful his old battleax of an aunt was in the hands of a convicted wife beater. DudeNotFunny. Though the same story had said aunt drugging innocent men and forcing them into marriage...so ickiness on both sides there) but Will's "femme fatales" are competent, both physically and mentally often the Spirit's equals. You know how in the old stories Catwoman always got completely owned and tricked by Batman (and even in some today?) Well, that never happens to Silk Satin. She's one step ahead of him, and every inch his equal. She doesn't throw herself at him either, like most of the other girls (well, at least not after the first story) Also, her first appearance? She walked in with a bullet in her arm, saying she got in a bit of a scuffle and knifed a guy, and then fishes the bullet out of her arm using a clean razor and some iodine. "There's the little beggar!" If that's not badass, I don't know what is. Satin rocks.
Superman v. Wonderman: Hoping to capitalize on the success of Superman, Fox Publications commissioned Will Eisner to create a similar hero. Thus, both Wonderman and a lawsuit were born.
Wonderman’s Story: Fred Carson was a mild-mannered engineer who met a yogi while visiting Tibet. The yogi gave Carson a magic ring, which endowed him with super strength, super speed, invulnerability, and the ability to leap tall buildings in a single… well, you get it.
Outcome: The case found its way to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. The opinion, written by August Hand, carefully compared the panels in Wonder Man’s first issue to those in Action Comics #1-11. Fox Publishing tried to get around the comics’ obvious similarities by arguing that proto-Supermen went all the way back to the legends of Hercules, but the court didn’t buy it. They ruled that Eisner’s comic went beyond use of the same archetype and enjoined Wonderman after only a single issue.
Must Watch: Great Featurette on the Origin of The Spirit (FirstShowing.net)
Image by Strandell via Flickrby Alex Billington October 20, 2008
Lionsgate has released a great behind-the-scenes featurette on the making of Frank Miller's The Spirit, which, like Sin City before it, was shot entirely on green screen stages. The featurette looks at the origin of The Spirit, going all the way back to Will Eisner's comic strips and Frank Miller's friendship with Eisner. As fantastic as this video is, they finally feature some of the more cheesy and over-the-top scenes that we complained about back during Comic-Con. Everytime I watched some new from this movie, I wonder whether I'm not thinking straight and if it really will be fantastic? As Frank Miller says, this isn't a tribute to Will Eisner, this is a tribute to The Spirit! Is anyone convinced that it may be good yet?
The Spirit: My City Screams (And So Do Fans of the Comic Book) (Spout Blog)
Image via Wikipedia"We talked about Frank Miller’s highly anticipated film adaptation of Will Eisner’s long running comic bookThe Spirit back at Comic-Con when the scenes failed to impress us. In fact, they felt like they were straight out of Sin City Redux. It’s been a few months since we were underwhelmed; have the filmmakers changed anything? Not based on the clip we were sent this week. Despite being a self-proclaimed fan of Will Eisner, Frank Miller is managing to stomp the life out of every facet that made The Spirit a compelling comic. Check out the video and find out why we’re not happy."—Kevin Kelly
Will Eisner's "Sheena" Returns! On Sale Now! (Comic Book Resources)
Forced against her will under the “protective” wing of her billionaire grandfather, SHEENA has been trapped in the concrete jungle of Val Verde City for months. But deep in the jungles of Val Verde lies a deadly secret; a relic from the glory days of Nazi Germany that will threaten SHEENA and all that she holds dear!
-Originally created by Will Eisner and S.M. Iger!
-Perfect jumping-on point for new readers!
Co-Written by legendary screenwriter Steven E. de Souza (DIE HARD, 48 HOURS, COMMANDO) and acclaimed graphic novelist Todd Livingston (The Black Forest, THE WICKED WEST, CHOPPER ZOMBIE)!
-Featuring a cover by Joe Jusko!
Story by Steven E. de Souza, Todd Livingston Art by Joe Abraham Cover by Joe Jusko, Franchesco C, Ryan Odagawa Publisher Devil's Due Cover Price: $3.50 Release Date Wed, October 29th, 2008
New Documentary DVD: Will Eisner, Profession: Cartoonist by Marisa Furtado de Oliveira
Marisa Furtado de Oliveira, a Brazilian documentarian, finally has U.S. distributed for her extremely cool film about the master artist, Will Eisner, Profession: Cartoonist. Here is an exclusive peek at the DVD and box art!
(You can learn more about this film in my 2005 biography, Will Eisner: A Spirited Life, available at Amazon.com!)
This list is about “must see” movies, not necessarily “sure to be great” movies. Sure, Frank Miller’s adaptation of the classic Will Eisner comic may have all the makings of a massive, bloody, CNN headline-grabbing train wreck — but like all great train wrecks and epic disasters in history, there is the distinct possibility that we won’t be able to look away. Click HERE to Keep Reading!
"My favourite comic of all time- or at least a tie with Chris Ware's Acme Novelty Library series- is Will Eisner's 'The Spirit'. He may have started off as a slightly generic Dick Tracy-ish character with a hint of Batman, but he soon became a lot more than that. Eisner's beautiful worldless sequences, surreal 'splash' pages and sheer willingness to experiment have influenced everyone from Alan Moore to Frank Miller, so it should be no surprise that the latter is bringing it to the big screen." — David Lemon writing in his blog post, "That's the Spirit."
Going Back Home with Momma's Man Director Azazel Jacobs (TheDeadbolt.com)
"I got to study with Will Eisner when I was going to high school. I knew he was teaching school, visual arts, so I was able to take a class with him. So thinking in terms of frames, and thinking in terms of story, I’ve always been there. But I definitely don’t draw as much as I’d like to now. It’s still something that I’m interested in."
— Filmmaker Azazel Jacobs, discussing his influences in an interview with Troy Rogers and published at TheDeadbolt.com. Jacobs' latest film, Momma's Man, was an official selection at the 2008 Sundance fest.
"Let's talk About It: Jewish Literature -- Identity and Imagination" (Montgomery Advertiser)
The E. L. Lowder Branch Regional Library will hold a five-part series on Jewish literature starting Aug. 12.
"Let's talk About It: Jewish Literature -- Identity and Imagination" will involve scholar-led discussions of contemporary and classic books on a common theme.
The library’s series will explore the theme of Modern Marvels: Jewish Adventures in the Graphic Novel.
The library is one of over 330 libraries nationwide receiving grants to host the series developed by Nextbook and the American Library Association.
The first program will be on "A Contract with God," by Will Eisner on Aug. 12 at the 2590 Bell Road library.
The other books that will be discussed are the complete "Maus: A Survivor’s Tale, by Art Spiegelman on Aug. 26, "Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer," by Ben Katchor on Sept. 16, "The Quitter," by Harvey Pekar on Oct. 7 and "The Rabbi’s Cat," by Joann Sfar on Oct. 28. All discussions will begin at 6 p.m.
Todd DePastino: BILL MAULDIN: A Life Up Front and WILLIE & JOE: The WWII Years: Mr. Media Interview
If you were a dog soldier in World War II, there were probably days when the only thing you had to look forward to was the latest issue of Stars & Stripes and the single-panel cartoons of Bill Mauldin.
Mauldin’s adventures of "Willie & Joe" became legendary for the laughs they brought to America’s soldiers – and the contempt they generated in high ranking officers.
Mauldin was the first artist to make a reputation for himself in the military, always signing his name to his work. Soldiers pledged allegiance to the American flag, baseball, apple pie – and the cartoons of Bill Mauldin.
Todd DePastino brings us a triple-dose of Mauldin to the artists’ legion of fans this year, first with his biography, Bill Mauldin: A Life Up Front from W.W. Norton, and second with Willie & Joe: The WWII Years, a collection of the beloved artist’s cartoons, published in a two-volume deluxe set by Fantagraphics.
You can LISTEN to this Mr. Media interview with TODD DePASTINO by clicking the BlogTalkRadio.com audio player below!
Michael Chabon's literary call to arms (Ottawa Citizen)
Essays show a dizzying range of influences
Review by Joel Yanofsky Canwest News Service July 13, 2008
Maps and Legends: Reading and Writing Along the Borderlands By Michael Chabon McSweeney's Books, 222 pages, $24
Michael Chabon has made a virtue and a career out of being all over the literary map.
His novels have been inspired by swashbuckling adventures (Gentlemen of the Road), comic books (The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, for which he won the Pulitzer Prize) and Raymond Chandler, if Chandler were Jewish (The Yiddish Policeman's Union).
This is eclecticism of a high order. Or it's eclecticism gone bananas. Whichever, the origins and the evolution of Chabon's versatile tastes and talents are on display in Maps and Legends, his first book of non-fiction.
Its 16 literary and personal essays cover a dizzying range of influences from Marcel Proust to comic books, Sherlock Holmes to Shecky Greene, Philip Pullman to Philip Roth.
In fact, calling Chabon well-read is like calling Alexander Ovechkin a good hockey player; it's an embarrassing understatement. Chabon is ridiculously well-read. Which, incidentally, puts him in an ideal position to go to bat for writers who have ended up, often unfairly and unfortunately, on the wrong side of literary judgment.
So while Chabon can demonstrate a scholarly detachment in essays on fashionable authors like Pullman or Cormac McCarthy, he is much happier as an unabashed fan.
In the essay "Thoughts on the Death of Will Eisner," Chabon compares Eisner, "the father of the graphic novel," to Orson Welles. Both had prodigious talents; both were enormous influences on the generations of artists who followed them.
Eisner's "Dropsie Avenue" Hits Rio de Janeiro Stage
The Brazilian theatrical adaptation of Will Eisner's graphic novel, "Dropsie Avenue," returns to the stage in Rio de Janeiro for a limited run in August after winning two regional Shell Awards.
Dave Slusher is producing a podcast called "Reality Break" with classic genre interviews he did over the years and launched it this week with a classic: Will Eisner. The telephone interview was recorded in 1998 and is of excellent quality. (I wish my interviews with Will were of this quality, frankly.) The conversation takes place during the release of Kitchen Sink's series of The Spirit: The New Adventures and publication of A Family Matter. It was also the 20th anniversary of A Contract With God.
Interestingly, Slusher asks Will if he coined the term "graphic novel," to wish Will replies, emphatically, "Yes!"
Eisner Hall of Fame Nominee: Reed Crandall (Scoop)
Scoop is posting biographies of the year's nominees for the "Will Eisner Hall of Fame." Some are more interesting to Eisner fans than others, such as Reed Crandall, who built his comic book reputation on Blackhawk, which Eisner created. Check out the Crandall profile here!
Jules Feiffer, EXPLAINERS cartoonist, author: Mr. Media Audio Interview
The word that comes to mind when I think about the comic strips of Jules Feiffer is this: soliloquy.
My Microsoft Word dictionary - hey, it's convenient! - defines it as “the act of speaking while alone, especially when used as a theatrical device that allows a character’s thoughts and ideas to be conveyed to the audience.”
That sounds about right to me, because the best of Feiffer’s strips – known, incidentally, as “Feiffer” –usually consisted of one character looking at the reader – breaking the so-called fourth wall - and going on for six or eight panels. The results weren’t always funny, but they were always sure to be thought provoking.
This month, Fantagraphics published Explainers, the first of four dense collections of Feiffer’s entire run of weeklies in The Village Voice. This volume of 500 strips is from 1956 through 1966; the strip ran through 1998.
Oh, and he won a Pulitzer Prize for his comic strip, too.
Jules Feiffer is one of comics’ great characters himself. He famously got his start with Will Eisner, creating and drawing a children’s strip called “Clifford” and eventually writing during the last years of “The Spirit”’s original run in the late 1940s and early 1950s.
Besides his long-running strip “Feiffer,” he might be best-known for his children’s work, from illustrating The Phantom Tollbooth and writing the original screenplay for the Robin Williams film, Popeye, to his book The Man in the Ceiling, which is being adapted as a musical by Disney. He also wrote the original screenplay for Carnal Knowledge, starring Jack Nicholson.
Feiffer’s also just completed his memoirs, which will be published in 2009.
I could keep going, but then you’d never get to hear from the man himself.
You can LISTEN to this interview by clicking the BlogTalkRadio.com audio player below!
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Will Eisner is particularly well known today for creating 
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